Womens Economic Rights> Re: Members-Announce> Urgent Virus Alert - Worm offshoot threatens PCs

[jjowa@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Quoting Kabissa Support <support@xxxxxxxxxxx>:

> Kabissa Members Announcements Mailing List
> ===========================================================
> Dear Colleagues,
> 
> Please read the attached virus alert. As always, be vigilant about
> opening
> file attachments from people you do not know. If you use Microsoft
> Outlook,
> it is imperative that you download and use virus protection software.
> 
> Follow this link to TechSoup.com for virus protection tips and
> downloads
> geared specifically to non-profits:
> http://www.techsoup.org/virusvaccination.cfm
> 
> Use of Kabissa Webmail will protect you from viruses that target
> weaknesses
> in Microsoft Outlook, as well as protect the privacy of your emails. We
> are
> currently testing a new version of Kabissa Webmail which additionally
> provides message filtering into folders, the fetching of mail from
> other
> POP3 mailboxes, and more. To begin using it visit
> http://www.kabissa.org
> and type in your username and password to log in. Let us know what you
> think!
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Tobias
> 
> -- 
> Kabissa - Space for change in Africa
> http://www.kabissa.org
> 
> Worm offshoot threatens PCs
> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/cn/20011126/tc/worm_offshoot_threatens_pcs_1.ht
> ml
> 
> A new variant of a mass-mailing Internet worm has been spreading
> rapidly
> over the weekend and is reported to be reaching the epidemic levels of
> SirCam, according to antivirus companies.
> 
> The "B" variant of the W32/BadTrans@MM worm has been attacking home
> and
> corporate PCs running Microsoft Outlook. It has initially been
> categorized
> as a medium-level risk but is expected to reach high-risk levels by the
> end
> of Monday.
> 
> "All affected domains that we have detected have been" Internet
> service
> providers for home users, said Mark Sunner, chief technology officer
> at
> British antivirus company MessageLabs. "It looks like the worm is
> gestating
> in the fertile ground of the home-user base, but corporate users will
> be
> coming into work (Monday) and setting it off on business networks."
> 
> By Monday midmorning British time, MessageLabs was detecting 100
> instances
> of the worm passing through its e-mail screening servers each minute. On
> an
> average day, 10,000 viruses will be intercepted by MessageLabs at an
> Internet level, but Sunner expects more than 30,000 reports today,
> with
> 10,000 attributable to W32/BadTrans-B.
> 
> The "B" variant, which is though to have originated from Britain,
> combines
> a mass-mailing mechanism with a Remote Access Trojan (RAT). RATs allow
> remote control over a machine, with the user having no idea that it
> has
> been infected. In this case, the RAT is dropped into the Windows
> directory,
> which attempts to e-mail the victim's IP address to the virus' author
> and
> allows the author to access the PC and steal passwords and other
> sensitive
> information. The Trojan horse also contains a program that records all
> keystrokes typed on the infected computer, potentially capturing other
> vital information such as credit card and bank account numbers.
> 
> The worm arrives as an attachment to an e-mail message that is 13.3
> kilobytes in length. It spreads through Microsoft Outlook by replying
> to
> any unread messages in an infected user's inbox.
> 
> "Because it isn't using a security exploit but rather Microsoft Outlook
> to
> spread, people are just as vulnerable to infection as they were with
> Melissa and Love Letter, if they have no protection in place," said
> David
> Emm, product and marketing manager for antivirus software maker
> McAfee.
> 
> The original BadTrans worm was detected on April 11. Computer users
> running
> Outlook can protect themselves against the new variant by updating
> their
> antivirus software.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ===========================================================
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